Update: the results are in! Finally, husband and I are getting around to renoVoting our bedroom. When we first moved in to No 9, we were thrilled just to have electricity and a blind in the master, but after six months...

Update: this project is underway! Our house is on the verge of turning from a halfway house into a real house. To keep the momentum going, we’re tackling the lounge room next – hoping to go from derelicte chic to one of the themes below. Choose wisely! ...

Winter is fast approaching in the South West. Every second day brings gallons of rain, which is inspiring me to curl up with a good book, finish our house faster than ever. Particularly the parts of it that may be underwater soon. So, with that in mind, it’s time to...

It may have been awhile between renoVotes, but we’re finally ready to go again after six weeks escaping reality in America. Next up for the renoVotion treatment is our study, a space measuring a grand total of 6ft by 8ft. Husband and I have chosen our top three ideas for...

Now that the front of No 9 is finally painted (thank you, weather gods), we can get going on our door makeover. I’d love a bright, welcoming door – something that, as Sheldon would say, is a bit zazzy. But maybe it’s safer to go with a more traditional hue – what...

Now that most of the building work is completed at No 9, husband and I can start turning our thoughts to decor. The pic I’ve posted below is of our dining room as it stands (exciting? not so much). As you can see, it’s a basic box, with four white...

Update: this project is underway! The walls are painted, the floors are sanded. Most of No 9 is slowly turning from building site to love at first sight (OK, for us – maybe no one else), but the one part of it that stays stubbornly un-done is the stairs....

Update: the results are in! No 9′s kitchen is going great guns, despite a slight hiccup with half of our worktops still not having been delivered (we’ve gone for laminate, I think we’ve earned a rest from wood). Now it’s time for renoVoters to choose a tap that’s in sync with...

Thanks to a couple of cracking Bank Holiday sales, husband and I already have two kitchen sinks gathering building dust. Option A may be more practical but then Option B is definitely prettier. Whichever one you choose will be installed on top of a 1m sink cabinet, so there is...

The renovation of our kitchen is gaining speed at a rate of knots. (Or so we like to tell ourselves when knee deep in dust/rubble/random bits of pipe.) Now that the floor is almost down, we can start to build the cabinets that will create the layout voted on by...

Now that the walls are wet washed and our stud wall is completed, husband and I have started to talk floors. I love them sanded and cool to the touch, he’s a bigger fan of carpet (especially upstairs). When he brings up the possibility of noise and footsteps echoing around...

Update: the results are in! I have to admit, this is a tough one for me to give up control over. I’m a big believer in the power of a shower and think it’s the only thing that gets me on site some days (that and husband’s promise of a...

Update: the results are in! Due to some tiny damp patches in our newly plastered dining room (to be fair, it has been raining horizontally for the past week in Plymouth), husband and I are putting the painting of the outside of No 9 at the top of the...

Update: the results are in! After spending hours on a terrifyingly addictive online room-design program, we present our biggest poll to date: the one which decides No 9′s kitchen. We’re torn between different types of fridges, ovens, wall cabinets… you get the idea. The door styles, tiles and paint are...

Update: the results are in! It’s already time to start thinking about our bathroom walls. At 109 and 93, we went for tiles – white metro tiles at 93 and cappucino grey ones at 109. But we want to try something different at No 9, so have narrowed it...

Update: the results are in! When we started stripping No 9, we weren’t just getting hit in the head by mouldy lengths of wallpaper – damp chunks of plaster were flying our way, too. Hence, most of the house’s plaster has had to come off altogether, the more stubborn pieces being...

Update: The votes have been counted! There’s nothing I hate more than an downstairs bathroom. (OK, apart from pebbledash, lino and tile paint.) But when you only have a two-up, two-down to start with, sacrifices have to be...

Update: The results are in! Are you a fan of the open plan? No 9 has your traditional mock Victorian layout: front door to a hall, small lounge room at the front of the house, stairs going down the middle, larger dining room at the back, which leads...

Update: the results are in! So I was lying when I said there’s nothing I hate more than a downstairs bathroom; turns out I also hate pebbledash. Maybe it’s because you don’t see houses covered with stones and glue in Australia, but I get a sinking feeling whenever a house...

Update: the results are in! No 9 has the world’s smallest garden. Think 3m x 1m. But it does have a lovely big kitchen (well, it’s not lovely yet) and an extra room at the back of the house that used to be a downstairs shower room. The shower...

What better chance to forage through some junk than on a weekend away? While in Exeter last month, husband and I got down and dusty at Steptoes Market. Tucked away at the back, next to a cherub-themed water fountain and a collection of Beano comics, was a filthy street sign, for the grand price of...

Well, I know I left this vote up forever, but at least every viewer and his dog has had a chance to vote. The winner is… White, bright and beautiful. And since the writing has been on the wall for about a month, we’ve already started to get the paint on the wall, too....

So Christmas was an age ago, but it’s fair to say we’ve only just started to recover. Between weddings, bouts of pneumonia and a new job for husband, things have been busy here at No 9, however we are finally getting back on top of life. (Well, apart from still having to take the Christmas...

During a recent hungover traipse through Soho, I came across God’s Junkyard, a pop-up shop open until the end of January. It’s jam-packed with vintage neon signs and remnants of London’s seedy past, with Girls Girls Girls signs sitting alongside giant hearts and balmy banners. Sadly, my budget didn’t stretch to the hundreds needed...

The transformation of our lounge into a private members club has begun. Our first project? To revamp the cast iron fireplace we bought months ago, which has been leaning up against various walls of No 9 ever since. After a bit of debate, we went for all charcoal, to set off the blue tiles that...

I hadn’t visited Liberty in ages when I logged on to Liberty.co.uk – and absence must make the heart grow even fonder, cause I could have happily snapped up every second thing on its website, which was chock full of pretty things. As well as the usual range of floral fabrics and lust-worthy stationery, I...

It was a right renoVoting battle, but our Private Members scheme has edged out our Scandi style mood board at the last minute. It was so close that I’m giving Scandi style another chance to prove itself in our master bedroom vote – check back tomorrow to see what other room themes it’s up against!...

Well, here it is – our first attempt at an eco retreat. While it’s still a bit of a work-in-progress, husband and I have done all we can until spring rolls around. And we’re pretty happy – but then anything is an improvement on looking out on to a skip. I think the...

It might be a bit optimistic, but we’ve decided to rely on solar power to light up our eco garden. And as husband now has a job, it falls to me to install the little blighters. Luckily, it was a pretty simple process that even I couldn’t muck up. 1) First, I measured our stretch...

This is meant to be a post about the progress we’ve made on our eco garden, but really it should be a post about the howling, constant, unforgiving rain we’ve had all week. If you’re reading this from somewhere that isn’t England, congratulate yourself for having the sense to move there. If you’re stuck...

The worst thing about Ikea has to be the hour you spend hour struggling to fit your eight flatpack pieces of furniture into your hatchback. But this lamp will sit on your lap, so it’s a perfect treat to sneak onto your trolley without fear of recrimination in the carpark. It comes in blue, green,...

After weeding through a record number of votes (sorry), we can finally start plotting how to turn our grubby little garden into an urban retreat. It seems Eco- inspired is the way to go, so send us any green ideas from your fertile minds to help us along. And check back this weekend for your chance...